People often argue about “Cuban versus New World” cigars as if it were a question of taste. It is really a question of where the cigar comes from, and that part can be stated clearly. A cuban cigar is, of course, grown and rolled in Cuba. A New World cigar is grown and rolled somewhere else: Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, the United States, Ecuador (mainly for wrapper leaf), and other countries. cuban seed tobacco grown in Estelí, Nicaragua, does not make a Cuban cigar. An Ecuadorian wrapper on a Dominican bunch is not a fault either. It is simply a blend.
This chapter covers history and labeling. It does not rank one side above the other.
Two industries from one plant
Until the late 1950s, Americans thought of Havana when they thought of a fine cigar. The best-known farms, factories, and brands were Cuban. Tampa and Key West rolled very large numbers of cigars, often with Cuban leaf, but the most prestigious cigar was still a Habano from Cuba. The 1959 revolution put the Cuban tobacco industry under state control. The U.S. embargo, in the form that has lasted, dates to the early 1960s. After that, Cuban cigars could no longer be sold legally in the United States. They were still sold legally in places such as London and Madrid.
Many growers and cigar makers left Cuba, and some took tobacco seed and their skills with them. Many went to Florida first. Later, countries that already grew tobacco built most of the new factories. The Dominican Republic had tobacco from the Cibao valley and, after 1980, companies such as Fuente in Santiago. Nicaragua had soil that reminded Cuban growers of Pinar del Río; Estelí became a major cigar-making city, and Padrón turned a Nicaraguan puro into a well-known American luxury brand. Honduras had Danlí. The term “New World” refers to this industry, and it was named from the American point of view, at a time when Cuban cigars had suddenly disappeared from U.S. shops.
Cuba kept making cigars for the rest of the world. The two industries use the same plant, the same vocabulary (capa, tripa, vitola), and many of the same sizes. They are separated by trade law.
Puro, blend, and the wrapper problem
Cuban cigars are puros, which means all of the tobacco comes from Cuba. Many Nicaraguan companies also make puros, because Nicaragua can grow wrapper, binder, and filler. For a long time the Dominican Republic could not grow wrapper leaf of top quality. Dominican cigars therefore became blends: Dominican filler with wrapper imported from Connecticut, Cameroon, or Ecuador. This was a matter of farming conditions, not a sign of lower quality.
The Fuente family's Chateau de la Fuente farm is the best-known exception. In the 1990s the Fuente family grew wrapper on a Dominican farm and made a Dominican puro, something many people had said could not be done. Ecuador’s cloud cover made it a major exporter of wrapper leaf. Nicaragua’s sun-grown habano wrapper made it a country of puros. None of these facts say which cigars taste better.
What the words are hiding
People often use “Cuban” to mean strong, oily, expensive, hard to get, or authentic. They use “Nicaraguan” to mean full-bodied and “Dominican” to mean mild. These are generalizations, and they are often wrong. The Dominican OpusX is not mild just because the Dominican Republic was once known mainly for filler. A Nicaraguan cigar with a Connecticut wrapper is not a Cuban-seed cigar in disguise. Read the band instead: it may tell you where the tobacco was grown, where the cigar was made, and which seed variety was used.
The Cuban embargo is a trade barrier. It does not change how a cigar tastes. Collectors who travel abroad and collectors who do not simply have access to different cigars. This book will not tell you which kind to prefer. It does point out that Padrón and Arturo Fuente became major New World cigar companies because of the embargo, and that Cuban factories still exist because Cuba never stopped growing tobacco.
For a deeper dive, see the cigar for the longer history, puro vs blend for the terms used to describe a cigar’s tobacco mix, and Padrón and Arturo Fuente for two examples.
Understanding Cigar Labels
The country of origin on a cigar can refer to where it was made, where the tobacco was grown, or both. A clear band or box will name both. “Handmade in Nicaragua” on a cigar with Honduran and Nicaraguan filler and an Ecuadorian wrapper describes a New World blend. “Hecho en Cuba” means a Cuban puro. Some brands describe both: Padrón, for example, describes its main lines as Nicaraguan puros made from Cuban-seed tobacco.
Misconceptions about strength follow these labels as well. Nicaraguan ligero from the top of the plant can carry a lot of nicotine. So can Cuban ligero. Dominican filler from the bottom of the plant can be mild, and so can a cigar with a Connecticut wrapper. The glossary entry strength vs body explains that nicotine strength and the fullness of the flavor are two different things, and the chapter strength, body, and flavor covers the labels in more detail.
Seed does not determine origin
After 1959, Cuban tobacco seed became a political issue as well as a farming one. Cuban-seed tobacco grown in Jalapa, Nicaragua, has had about sixty years to adapt to Nicaraguan conditions, so it is clearly Nicaraguan tobacco. Names such as habano, corojo, and criollo still point back to their Cuban ancestry. That ancestry is real, but it does not make the cigar Cuban. If a seller uses “Cuban seed” to suggest “almost Cuban,” this is marketing, not a genuine description of the end product.
Because of the embargo, cigar shops in the United States sell New World cigars, while Cuban cigars remain a well-known absence. If the embargo ended tomorrow, there would be two mature, separate industries, not one industry reunited. They have been separate channels of the cigar business since the early 1960s.
Sources: Public embargo chronology; manufacturer origin claims; established trade geography of Cuban and New World production.